Definition
To forisfamiliate a son: a formal act by which a father in medieval English and Scots law settled a portion upon a son and thereby extinguished the son's further claims against the father's estate. The literal meaning is to put outside the family (foris familiam ponere). The act accomplished two related but distinct things: it transferred property to the son as his share, and it severed the son's legal tie to paternal authority and inheritance expectations. Once forisfamiliated, the son stood on his own — he could not later demand an additional share from his father's estate on the ground that he had received nothing.
The term also carried the broader sense of emancipation from paternal authority generally, though the property-settlement aspect was its primary practical content in English and Scots feudal law.
Common Confusion
Forisfamiliare is sometimes loosely equated with simple disinheritance, but the two are distinct. Disinheritance excludes a child without compensating him. Forisfamiliation involves an affirmative settlement — a portion actually given — which then operates as the child's complete share. The act was closer to an advance and release than a deprivation. A researcher encountering the term in a medieval pleading or treatise should not assume the son received nothing; the legal point is typically that he already received everything he was entitled to.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a term of medieval law with no living counterpart in modern practice. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in historical sources: Glanvill, Regiam Majestatem, and secondary commentary on feudal inheritance. It appears more frequently in Scots law materials than in English ones, reflecting Scotland's longer retention of formalized patria potestas concepts.
The key research trap is anachronism. Modern succession concepts — forced heirship, elective share, advancements — are superficially related but legally distinct. Projecting modern categories backward onto forisfamiliation produces misleading analysis. In particular, the English common law doctrine of advancements (which reduces an heir's share by amounts received during the ancestor's lifetime) is a descendant idea, not an equivalent one; the mechanisms and the underlying family-law philosophy differ.
For corpus researchers working in Scots law materials, forisfamiliate and its cognate forisfamiliatus will appear in contexts involving questions of what a son already received and whether he can claim against the estate. Connecting those materials to the corresponding English common law discussions requires care because Scots law preserved Roman law influences on family property longer than English law did.
The term also has relevance in ecclesiastical and canon law contexts where emancipation from paternal authority had procedural consequences. Burrill's entry points toward Regiam Majestatem as a primary Scots source, and researchers working that angle should consult that text directly rather than relying on secondary paraphrase.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill are in complete agreement on the core meaning, which is unsurprising given that all three are drawing from the same narrow range of primary sources — primarily Glanvill, book 7, chapter 3. Burrill adds a second primary citation, Regiam Majestatem, book 2, chapter 33, section 8, which is valuable for researchers working on the Scots law dimension; Black's does not include this reference. Burrill also cross-references forisfamiliatus, the adjectival form describing the son who has been forisfamiliated, which is worth following for researchers tracing the term through pleading records.
None of the three historical dictionaries engage with the relationship between forisfamiliation and Roman law emancipation concepts, nor do they discuss how the doctrine interacted with feudal tenure obligations or primogeniture. These are gaps that matter for contextual research. The historical dictionaries treat forisfamiliare as a settled, uncontroversial term and offer no case law; the doctrine was already archaic when these dictionaries were compiled.
Jurisdictional Note
The doctrine has greater historical depth in Scots law than in English law, reflecting Scotland's civilian inheritance. In England, the common law of advancements absorbed and displaced the older forisfamiliation concept. Researchers should not assume English and Scots sources use the term interchangeably or with identical legal effect.